Fried chicken sandwiches, ancient grains, kale – food trends come and go in relentless waves of listicles, tweets and posts, but no trend has been able to dethrone the most beloved fascination of all: bacon. At Mouth, we have lots of ways to amp up dinner at home with our products, and this insider tip involves yet another way for bacon to take over: Caesar dressing.
Sure, you could just add some bacon to your salad and toss it all with dressing, but you’d never get an even distribution of bacon flavor. So here’s a sizzling news flash: add Skillet Street Food’s Fennel + Black Pepper Bacon Jam (you can use their straight-up bacon jam if you don’t dig fennel).
The result: Slightly smoky, slightly sweet, definitely salty, delicious and evenly distributed bacon flavor in every bite.
Caesar has to be considered one of Americans’ top five favorite dressings, but it’s not in every home cook’s repertoire – most likely because the recipe typically calls for raw or coddled egg yolks (for the uninitiated, that’s just fancy for “gently warmed”), and we do get squeamish about the raw egg thing because of salmonella.
So, just to make it easy, sub in mayo for the eggs, which is a handy trick since, after all, mayonnaise is just an emulsion of oil with egg yolk and lemon juice or vinegar.
To make this dressing you’ll need a jar of Skillet’s Bacon Jam. It’s also ideal with a tablespoon of Tin Mustard (either smooth or whole grain), one of the best products we’ve ever tasted, and Heirloom Lemon White Wine Vinegar from Mikuni Wild Harvest in Seatac, Washington. But if you’re only looking to get your Bacon Jam on, this time, feel free to use the Dijon on the door of your fridge and plain old white wine vinegar. (Bonus points for going whole hog by using Empire’s Bacon Mayonnaise!)
Skillet Street Bacon Jam Caesar Dressing
6 cloves garlic, mashed (more if you love garlic!)1 ½ tablespoon Tin Mustard
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 tinned anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon Skillet Street Foods’ Fennel + Black Pepper Bacon Jam
½ cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
sea salt
freshly crushed black peppercorn
Directions
1. Combine garlic, mustard, vinegar, mayonnaise, anchovies and bacon jam in a cup or small bowl and with an immersion blender on high until smooth. (A food processor or blender works too.)
2. Add olive oil and lemon juice and blend on low until creamy.
3. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.